Firmware Inventory Service

Abstract

Techniques for creating and using a firmware inventory service are disclosed. A firmware collection agent executing on a physical machine periodically collects information about the firmware of components on the physical machine at a collection frequency. The firmware information is provided to a firmware inventory service for storage in a searchable data repository. The firmware inventory service receives queries about the stored firmware information and displays firmware information responsive to the queries.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . One or more non-transitory computer-readable media comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a computer system, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
 executing a firmware collection agent on a physical machine;   determining, by the firmware collection agent, firmware information about firmware on the physical machine at a configured collection frequency, wherein determining the firmware information comprises:
 determining at a first time, by the firmware collection agent, a first instance of the firmware information about the firmware on the physical machine; and 
 determining at a second time, by the firmware collection agent, a second instance of the firmware information about the firmware on the physical machine, wherein a difference between the first time and the second time is based on the configured collection frequency; 
   transmitting, by the firmware collection agent to a firmware inventory service, the first instance of the firmware information and the second instance of the firmware information; and   displaying at least a subset of the firmware information via a user interface that is communicatively coupled to the firmware inventory service.   
     
     
         2 . The non-transitory media of  claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:
 obtaining, by the firmware collection agent, permission from a customer associated with the physical machine to collect the firmware information on the physical machine.   
     
     
         3 . The non-transitory media of  claim 1 , wherein the physical machine operates within a cloud environment provided by a cloud service provider and the physical machine is dedicated to a customer of the cloud service provider. 
     
     
         4 . The non-transitory media of  claim 3 , wherein at least a portion of the firmware information cannot be accessed by a human operator at the cloud service provider. 
     
     
         5 . The non-transitory media of  claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise executing the firmware collection agent on a BIOS of the physical machine. 
     
     
         6 . The non-transitory media of  claim 1 , the operations further comprising: using a machine learning model to determine the configured collection frequency for the firmware collection agent to collect and transmit the firmware information. 
     
     
         7 . The non-transitory media of  claim 1 , the operations further comprising:
 Storing the firmware information, by the firmware inventory service, in a searchable data repository.   
     
     
         8 . The non-transitory media of  claim 7 , the operations further comprising:
 accessing the stored firmware information from the searchable data repository;   comparing the stored firmware information to firmware information associated with an update criterion; and   raising an alert when the comparing indicates that the stored firmware information meets the update criterion.   
     
     
         9 . The non-transitory media of  claim 8 , the operations further comprising:
 calculating a common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVE) score based on the comparing;   assigning a priority level to one or more physical machines according to the respective CVE scores associated with the respective one or more physical machines; and   automatically installing a firmware update onto the one or more physical machines according to the respective priority levels of the one or more physical machines.   
     
     
         10 . The non-transitory media of  claim 7 , the operations further comprising:
 receiving a request for a firmware history for the firmware on a physical machine from a first customer;   accessing the stored firmware information for the physical machine; and   generating a firmware history for the physical machine, the firmware history including the firmware information collected during a first time frame when the physical machine was associated with the first customer.   
     
     
         11 . The non-transitory media of  claim 10 , wherein the firmware information includes an indication of a customer associated with the physical machine at a time of the collecting; and wherein generating the firmware history does not include firmware information collected during a second time frame when the physical machine was associated with a different customer. 
     
     
         12 . The non-transitory media of  claim 7 , the operations further comprising:
 receiving a request for a firmware inventory report, the request including one or more firmware criteria;   accessing the stored firmware information for a plurality of physical machines;   selecting the stored firmware information that meets the one or more firmware criteria; and   generating the firmware inventory report according to the selected stored firmware information.   
     
     
         13 . The non-transitory media of  claim 7 , the operations further comprising:
 accessing the stored firmware information for a physical machine identified for one of provisioning or re-provisioning;   determining that the firmware on the physical machine is up-to-date based on the stored firmware information;   skipping a firmware update process for the physical machine based on the determining; and   collecting and transmitting, by the firmware collection agent, the firmware information about firmware on the physical machine to the firmware inventory service when the provisioning or re-provisioning is performed.   
     
     
         14 . The non-transitory media of  claim 1 , the operations further comprising:
 executing a plurality of firmware collection agents on a corresponding plurality of physical machines;   determining, by the plurality of firmware collection agents, respective firmware information about respective firmware on the plurality of physical machines at the configured collection frequency; and   transmitting, by the plurality of firmware collection agents to the firmware inventory service, the respective firmware information, wherein the firmware inventor service maintains a searchable data repository of the firmware information corresponding to the plurality of machines.   
     
     
         15 . The non-transitory media of  claim 1 , wherein the operations comprise executing the firmware collection agent on an integrated lights out manager of the physical machine. 
     
     
         16 . The non-transitory media of  claim 1 , wherein the first instance of the firmware information is identical to the second instance of the firmware information; the operations further comprising:
 determining at a third time, by the firmware collection agent, a third instance of the firmware information about the firmware on the physical machine, wherein the second instance of the firmware information is different from the third instance of the firmware information; and   transmitting, by the firmware collection agent to the firmware inventory service, (a) at least one of the first instance of the firmware information and the second instance of the firmware information, and (b) the third instance of the firmware information.   
     
     
         17 . A method comprising:
 executing a firmware collection agent on a physical machine;   determining, by the firmware collection agent, firmware information about firmware on the physical machine at a configured collection frequency, wherein collecting the firmware information comprises:
 determining at a first time, by the firmware collection agent, a first instance of the firmware information about firmware on the physical machine; and 
 determining at a second time, by the firmware collection agent, a second instance of the firmware information about firmware on the physical machine, wherein a difference between the first time and the second time is based on the configured collection frequency; 
   transmitting, by the firmware collection agent to a firmware inventory service, the first instance of the firmware information and the second instance of the firmware information; and
 displaying at least a subset of the firmware information via a user interface that is communicatively coupled to the firmware inventory service; 
 wherein the method is performed by at least one device including a hardware processor. 
   
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17 , further comprising: using a machine learning model to determine the configured collection frequency for the firmware collection agent to collect and transmit the firmware information. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 17 , further comprising: storing the firmware information, by the firmware inventory service, in a searchable data repository. 
     
     
         20 . A system comprising:
 at least one device including a hardware processor;   the system being configured to perform operations comprising:   
       executing a firmware collection agent on a physical machine; 
       determining, by the firmware collection agent, firmware information about firmware on the physical machine at a configured collection frequency, wherein collecting the firmware information comprises:
 determining at a first time, by the firmware collection agent, a first instance of the firmware information about firmware on the physical machine; and 
 determining at a second time, by the firmware collection agent, a second instance of the firmware information about firmware on the physical machine, wherein a difference between the first time and the second time is based on the configured collection frequency; 
 
       transmitting, by the firmware collection agent to a firmware inventory service, the first instance of the firmware information and the second instance of the firmware information; and
 displaying at least a subset of the firmware information via a user interface that is communicatively coupled to the firmware inventory service.